Friday, March 28, 2008

More British Broads Who Just Missed Hitting #1

I was obsessing over this all goddamn day; I mean, how mindboggling that it's really been 21 years since a solo female artist from the U.K. -- Kim Wilde, with "You Keep Me Hangin' On" -- topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart! And thanks to all the cats who chipped in their two cents on the previous post today about this, even the Leo-tards.

Anyway, in said post, I mentioned Nicki French and Donna Lewis both just missed hitting #1 here, peaking in the runner-up position in 1995 and 1996, respectively. So here are some other pop babes from Old Blighty who've sprung to mind since this morning, whose jams came close.

* Lisa Stansfield (pictured above), "All Around The World": How I loved Lisa and her kiss-curl so! I bought this cassette single one frosty Friday night in January while hanging out at the mall. I was 15-going-on-16, and completely mesmerized with Lisa's androgynous image. My friends were just getting their driver's licenses, and this track was one of the many radio hits providing a soundtrack to those weekend nights of aimlessly driving around our suburban Pennsylvania hometown. (#3, January 1990)

*Cathy Dennis, "Touch Me (All Night Long)": I wasn't monogomously- enamored with Lisa Stansfield, and I soon replaced her with Cathy Dennis. Long before Leona Lewis was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, I recall rushing home from classes one weekday in 11th grade to videotape Cathy's performance on the talk show. (#2, May 1991)

* Des'ree, "You Gotta Be": This F-ing song! I swear, I heard this for about two years solid every time I turned the radio on in the mid-'90s. I do have some good memories of dating this one hot piece for about five minutes when "You Gotta Be" first came out, and always seeing the video on VH1 at about 1 a.m. when I'd stay over at his apartment on the edge of our college campus. (#5, December 1994)

I guess we can include Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten," from two years ago (#5), but that's all I got. Can anyone think of more?

Seanti, believe it or not, Neneh Cherry was the first one who came to mind... I was halfway through typing up a paragraph about here, then looked her up and saw she was actually born in Stockholm and raised in NYC.

I too was absolutely disbelieving that no Brit female has topped the US charts since Kim. But damn if it ain't true. In fact, very few have even hit the top ten since! Indeed, Dido reached number 3, and let's not forget Sonique's It Feels So Good, which reached #8, and Amy Winehouse's Rehab. But Sade and Annie Lennox had a lot less success than I thought on the Billboard charts when I looked into it, and I could have sworn Tasmin Archer's Sleeping Satellite was a top ten song, but itonly made it to #32!

Jester, and while we're at it, how tragic that Kim Wilde's best song, "You Came," peaked just outside the U.S. Top 40, at #41!

Nasty G, Tasmine Archer rawked!! Shit, that makes me think of Sunscreem (Sunscream?), too -- "Love U More." And, yeah, shocking that Annie Lennox's highest-charting U.S. hit (and only Top 10) was her duet cover with Al Green of "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" in 1988. "Walking On Broken Glass" only made it to #12...another mindbloggler, considering how much it was played when it was released.

Another almost was -- though it was a duet -- Dusty Springfield and Pet Shop Boys' "What Have I Done To Deserve This" (#2 in 1988).